Books Set in Canada: Quebec

The Beautiful Mystery, by Louise Penny (2012)

This book is one in a series of Chief Inspector Gamache detective/crime novels.  Although it is not the first book in the series, it is the first book I had read.   I will definitely read other books in this series.

The novel takes place in a remote monastery in deep woods of Quebec where 24 monks who have taken a vow of silence but for their chanting live.  A recording of their chants has made them world famous and brings money to the monastery.

The choir director, however, ends up dead in the abbot's private garden.  Chief Inspector Gamache and his side-kick, Jean-Guy Beauvoir of the Surete du Quebec are called in to solve the murder.  The discover that all his not peace and quiet in the monastery and several of the two dozen monks could have a motive for the murder.

The book was well written and the outcome of the mystery satisfactory.  I look forward to reading about the Chief Inspector in other books.

4 Stars

Read: December 12, 2014

Books Set in the United States: Boston, Massachusetts

The House of Velvet and Glass, by Katherine Howe (2101)

3 Stars

Read: November 28, 2014

Books Set in Asia and the United States

Honolulu, by Alan Brennert (2009)

Honolulu is a novel about a young Korean girl named Regret who traveled from her native country to Hawaii in 1914 at age 17 as a "picture bride."  She has dreams of being able to go to school and make something of herself.  Together with several other young women, they boarded a ship to meet their handsome young husbands, only to find once they land in Hawaii that the prospective grooms are not what they seemed.  Regret discovers that her husband is much older and, instead of being a prosperous businessman, is a drunken laborer.

After being abused by her husband, Regret runs away to Honolulu, where she now calls herself Jin and begins to make a new life.

Honolulu is the story of Hawaii after the islands became a US territory.  It describes the difficulties of Native Hawaiians and Asians as the white began to take over and govern the islands.  Many of the characters in the latter portion of the novel are historical figures. 

4 Stars

Read:  October 20, 2014

Books Set in Europe and Asia

The Orchid House, by Lucinda Riley (2011)

4 Stars

Read:  October 15, 2014

Books Set in the United States: Missouri

A Good American, by Alex George (2012)

I loved this novel, which is a saga of a family that immigrated from Germany and ended up in a small rural town in Missouri in the early 1900s.  Frederick and Jetta left their native Germany when Jette became pregnant and her parents disapproved of her future husband.  Planning on heading to New York, they boarded a ship bound for New Orleans.  Once they arrive they are encouraged to head north, up the Mississippi River.  They ended up Beatrice, Missouri when Jetta goes into labor and gives birth to Joseph.  His sister, Rosa, is born a few years later.

The novel follows the lives of Frederick and Jette.  When the United States entered World War I, Frederick enlisted and went to fight against his native land.  The novel follows the lives of Frederick and Jette, their children, Joseph and Rosa, then moves on to the next generation.

The novel is narrated by James, the second son of Joseph and Cora.  He retells the events of his and his brothers’ lives, including their religious crises, their friends and tribulations.  This part of the novel has some very funny moments.

In the end, there are family secrets that are revealed.  Some twists in the plot I never saw coming.

5 Stars

Read:  October 11, 2014

Books Set in the United States: Louisiana

The Cottoncrest Curse, by Michael H. Rubin (2014)

This book is billed as a legal thriller, but merely perpetuates stereotypes of blacks, Jews and red-neck Southerners.  It starts with a bloody murder of the Judge and his young wife, who are the owners of Cottoncrest, a still thriving plantation following the American Civil War.  It appears to be a murder suicide, but the local sheriff suspects otherwise.  Throughout the book, the author tosses out legal terms that are unique to Louisiana.  I never cared about any of the characters.

0 Stars

Read:  September 28, 2014

Books Set in Europe: Italy

Blood and Beauty: The Borgias, by Sarah Dunant (2013)

This historical novel about the Borgias gets bogged down in places.  Sarah Dunant has written several novels about Italy during the Renaissance.  I enjoyed her earlier novels, The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan much better.  I think that one needs a better history lesson of the Borgias and the events of Italy during the late 1400s and early 1500s to really enjoy this book.

3 Stars

Read:  August 24, 2014

Books Set in Asia: Israel

Jerusalem Maiden, by Talia Carner (2011)


4 Stars

Read: August 10, 2014

Books Set in Europe: London, England

Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger (2009)

5 Stars

Read:  August 7, 2014

Books Set in the United States: Maine

Leeway Cottage, by Beth Gutcheon (2005)

This book purport to be about Denmark during World War II, and that is a part of the story, but it primarily focuses on two spoiled rich women and their inability to treat their husbands and children nicely.

Leeway Cottage is a summer home somewhere along the Maine coast.  The descriptions of the Maine coast rang true.

3 Stars

Read: August 6, 2014

Books Set in the United States: Boro Park, New York

Sima's Undergarments for Women, by Ilana Stranger-Ross (2009)

Sima Goldner, through her own making, is in a loveless marriage.  To keep herself busy, she runs a lingerie shop in the basement of her home.  Women of all shapes and sizes visit her shop to get the bras and underwear, as well as the local gossip, for the support and lift they need.  

One day, a beautiful young Israeli woman enters her shop looking for both a bra and a job.  Sima takes young Timna under her wing and projects her own feelings for a child on Timna.  The two become friends as well as employer-employee despite their age difference.  When Sima tries to act as Timna's mother, however, trouble starts.

Sima is forced to face her own fallibility and look to she if she can reenergize her marriage.

3 Stars

Read: August 4, 2014

Books Set in the United States

The Racketeer, by John Grisham.  (2012)

I had not read any books by John Grisham in ages.  I picked this up recently and it was a fun, quick read.  The story kept my interest, however, it fell apart in the last 20 or so pages.

The legal thriller began when Malcolm Bannister, an African-American attorney lands him in a 10-year federal prison sentence on RICO charges.  Five years into his prison term, he invokes Rule 35, by informing the FBI that he has information on the murderer of Federal Judge Fawcett and his secretary/lover.

In return for his information, Bannister insists upon entering the Federal Witness Protection Program.   He tells the FBI that a drug dealer named Quinn Rucker, and who had escaped from the federal minimum security prison, murdered the judge as revenge for a failed bribery attempt.  The FBI catch up with Quinn but soon learn that Quinn is not the murderer.

Armed with a new face, compliments of plastic surgery, and a new name, Bannister, now known as Max Baldwin, succeeds in shaking his FBI handlers and sets up a fake film company that he uses as a front.  He convinces a former fellow prisoner, Nathan Cooley (who doesn't recognize Bannister due to his new face) that his is filming a documentary about corruption in the Drug Enforcement Administration and that Cooley would be an excellent informant.  Bannister succeeds in carting Cooley off to Jamaica, where he sets him up for cocaine possession, thereby landing Cooley a stay in the local prison.

Spoiler Alert:  It turns out that Nathan was the real murder of the Judge and that he stole millions of dollars worth of gold that the judge had received in his corrupt acts.

The FBI is ultimately informed of the real killer.  Rucker is released, Bannister gets the gold, which he splits with Rucker and they live happily ever after.

3 Stars  (because of the fairy tale ending)

Read:  July 21, 2014

Books Set in England

Alphabet Weekend, by Elizabeth Noble (2005)

I was disappointed in this novel.  It reminded me of a romantic comedy movie.  About 9 years ago, I read The Reading Group by the same author and enjoyed it.  I, therefore, had high expectations for this novel.  It was predictable.  It was an easy read, but not stellar.

3 Stars

Read:  July 19, 2014

Books Set in Asia: Israel

My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, by Ari Shavit (2013)

4 Stars

Read: July 6, 2014

Books Set in Australia and England

The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton (2008)


4 Stars

Read:  July 5, 2014

Books Set in the United States: Vermont

Secrets of Eden, by Chris Bohjalian (2010)

Another novel about domestic violence.  This book was much better than The Hurricane Sisters, however.

The novel follows the alleged murder-suicide of Alice and George Hayward from four different perspectives.

4 Stars

Read:  June 28, 2014

Books set in Asia: Afghanstan

The Pearl the Broke Its Shell, by Nadia Hashimi (2014)

5 stars

Read: June 25, 2014. 

Books Set in the United States

The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap, by Matt Taibbi (2014)

This is a scary political book that describes how banks and big corporations can literally get away with crime, while the average American citizen is in jeopardy of losing his rights.  The poorer one is, the less rights are available.

Three Stars

Read:  June 14, 2014

Books Set in the United States: South Carolina

The Hurricane Sisters, by Dorothy Benton Frank (2014)

This was a rather heavy handed novel about domestic violence.

3 Stars

Read: June 12, 2014

Books Set in the United States: Maine

The Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline (2013)

This is a fascinating novel about the Orphan Trains that came about during the 1920s and 1930s in the United States.  Young children were placed on trains and sent to the mid-West where they were placed in foster homes.  Often the new foster parents wanted only an extra helping hand to work around the house or farm.

This novel was about the friendship of a 90-year old woman who had once been such an orphan and a young, troubled girl who was bouncing from foster home to foster home in Maine.

I enjoyed the book, but it fell apart at the end.

4 stars

Read: June 7, 2014

Books Set in Russia

The Last Romanov, by Dora Levy Mossanen (2012)

Six years ago, I read Harem by the same author.  I loved that book.  This book didn't live up to my expectations.  It is a fictional account of the final years of Tsar Nicholas II and his family as recalled by Darya Borisovna Spiridova.  Darya, of course, is fictional.  She was the caretaker of the young Alexei and believed that he had survived the massacre that killed the rest of his family.  When the story opens, Darya is over 100 years old and is still searching for the young prince.  The novel is a blend of fantasy and realism.

3 Stars

Read: May 29, 2014

Books Set in the United States: Charleston, South Carolina

The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd (2014)

4 Stars

Read:  May 21, 2014

Books Set in the United States: New York City

Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune, by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr.  (2013)

4 Stars

Read: May 12, 2014

Books Set in the United States: Boston, Massachusetts

The Art Forger, by B.A. Shapiro (2012)

I loved this book, which was inspired by the art heist (which has never been solved) at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.  Claire Roth is an artist with a checkered past.  With her career in ruins, she works for a company that specializes in copied art works.  It is no crime to copy art, however, it is to pass such work off as the original.  She is given the opportunity to revive her career and have a one-woman show at a prestigious art gallery if she agrees to copy a Degas masterpiece that was one of the works stolen from the Gardner museum.  As Claire begins to work on the copy, she comes to the realization that the "original" is, itself, a forgery.

5 Stars

Read:  April 19, 2014

Books Set in Europe: England

Mistress of the Art of Death, by Araina Franklin  (2007)

3 Stars

Read: April 16, 2014

Books Set in Asia: Shanghai, China

Shanghai Diary, by Ursula Bacon (2002)

This is the memoir of a young Jewish girl who fled with her family from Nazi Germany to Shanghai China during World War II.  Unfortunately, the book is not well written, although the story itself is an important part of Jewish history.

3 Stars.
Read: March 29, 2014

Books Set in the United States: Vermont

House Rules, by Jodi Picoult (2010)

4 Stars

Read:  March 19, 2014

Books Set in Europe: Germany and Austria

The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, by Robert M. Edsel (2009)

3 Stars

Read: March 15, 2014

Books Set in Europe: Germany, Bavaria

The Begger King, by Oliver Pötzsch (2010)

Third book in The Hangman's Daughter series.

5 Stars
Read: March 9, 2014

Books set in Africa: Egypt

The Map of Love, by Ahdaf Soueif (1999)


3.5 Stars

Read: March 2, 2014

Books Set in Africa: Belgium Congo

The Headhunter's Daughter, by Tamar Myers (2011)

This is the sequel to The Witch Doctor's Wife.  The books must be read in sequence as there was a lot of reference to the first book.  The novel describes relations between the Belgiums, the American missionaries, and the various interactions of the African tribes right before the country's independence from the Europeans.

3 Stars
Read:  February 23, 2014

Books Set in Europe and the United States

Hunting Midnight, by Richard Zimler (2003)

I had read The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon by Richard Zimler several years ago.  I was completely taken by that novel and was looking forward to reading other works by the author.

Hunting Midnight, however, did not live up to my expectations.  The author seemed to try to take on too much.  The book begins with John Zarco Stewart, a young boy living in Portugal.  His father is Scottish and his mother, who is from Portugal is Jewish, although John is raised without a religion.  John's father brings Midnight, an African bushman, into the family home.  Midnight befriends the family and brings with him the mystical tales of Africa.  Later, Midnight is sold into slavery and shipped to South Carolina.  John, the adult, learns of this and goes to America in an attempt to find his friend and teacher, Midnight.

It was very far-fetched, as the story went from post-Inquisition Portugal to antebellum America.

Three Stars
Read: February 16, 2014

Books Set in Europe: Sarajevo

The Cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway (2008)

The novel takes place during Siege of Sarajevo in 1992.

4 Stars

Read: February 11, 2014

Books Set in Asia: Sri Lanka

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala (2013)

Wave one woman's survival story following the Tsunami in that occurred on December 26, 2004 in Sri Lanka.  The author, who was vacationing at a beach resort with her family, lost her husband, two sons and parents in the tidal wave.  Wave recounts the aftermath of her life.  It is very well written.

5 stars.

Read: February 9, 2014

Books Set in the United States and Germany

The Storyteller, by Jodi Picoult (2013)

5 Stars

Read: February 2, 2014

Books Set in the United States and Egypt

A Guide for the Perplexed, by Dara Horn (2013)

Two Stars

Read: January 10, 2014